Sorry, I'm going to have to disagree with you here WPM. You having the images up is both an infringement of copyright and a threat to Nintendo.
I think it's pretty clear that if you take images of every character in a game where there are hundreds, in a game that has either just been released or isn't released, depending on your interpretation of the law(which, by the way, probably isn't as good as the qualified lawyer's who is currently hired by Nintendo!) is a violation of copyright, or some other complicated facet of the law. Take away Pokemon and I don't think anyone would be disagreeing. But, you're being affected by it, so you only see your side of it and don't really give any thought beyond that. It's alright, it's human, and we've all done it and do it every day.
So, they have the right, I think we should be able to agree on that. But why would they want to pull out their images from your site? Aren’t you helping the market, letting all the fans see the new Pokemon?
Well, no, not really. You see, the members of the site are an insignificant part of the market, and a part of the market that are going to buy the games anyway. Their reputation with you doesn’t matter as much to them as their reputation with their target audience – an audience which, mostly, aren’t even legally old enough to be part of the forums.
Now, this audience are young, and undedicated to the series. If they see images of the cute little Pokemon, they’ll want the games now. If they find out the games don’t come out for another 4 months, they’ll just forget and move on. This is why they have to prepare the market for their new release – trickle out little bits of information to build hype in a controlled manner, then let it all loose when there’s an actual product to buy. That’s why Japanese images are good, but American images are bad. Yes, in this big mass of information we call the “internet” anyone can get to anything, but that’s if they know how to or care enough to. A hard-core teenage fan will always find the information – but a little kid will only find it if it’s right there, on a non-obscure site in a language they can read. This is also probably why big sites like Bulbapedia haven’t been contacted; what child would want to wade through that boring site? It’s a useful resource, but very bland.
Now, as for your idea of an international release, that is simply unreasonable to expect. Different markets call for different releases; it is no coincidence that so many(every?) Pokemon games are released around the same time of year for Japan and America. I can’t give you an exact reason, because it’s a Nintendo thing, but there is some key point about releasing the games at those times that makes it the best time to do it. They don’t release the games as quickly as they can; I mean the second Phoenix Wright was apparently translated entirely in a few weeks but not released in America for nearly a year(?) afterwards, because they had to release it at the right time to make the most money possible. No, they release the game when their research/past experiences/whatever else says they will have the most purchases. It’s a tricky and calculated move that can’t just be changed to accommodate some fansite.
I really don’t like your attitude towards the whole thing; you’re coming off as whinging and very selfish. No-one from Nintendo is attacking you, which, judging from your Ditto “rebuttal”, is what you think. In fact, you tried to bait that lawyer and he was not only reasonable to you in his response but a bit forgiving; you’d just acted all high and mighty about an issue you were really wrong about, yet he accepted it and didn’t take down the whole site! (Which, by the way, I’m sure Nintendo would be allowed to do, but they never will because they aren’t petty.) The lawyer probably wasn’t more specific about what you can and can’t do because he doesn’t call the shots, he just writes the paperwork, and because every right he gives you is taking one away from Nintendo and making more room for loopholes. Don’t shoot the messenger, especially a very nice one with a perfectly fair message!
